Top IMG friendly Neurology residency programs 2020

Today's analysis looks at IMG friendly states for neurology based on the 2020 data.

I calculated the percentage of IMG applicants who matched to different states. The results were then ranked in order of least to highest figure 1.

States ranked by percent of IMGs matching to Neurology

The results was as follows. Based on percentage of IMG applicants matching, the top 5 states were Nebraska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Louisiana and New Mexico made the top of the list. The range of IMG applicants matching was upwards of 60%. The next tier of places Mississippi, Oklahoma, Kentucky, West Virginia and New Jersey. The IMG applicants ranged from 50% to 56% in these states.

Smaller programs with higher IMG applicants can skew the ranking. For instance, Arkansas has 3 of 4 applicants who are IMGs, making their score of 75%. To limit this skewing, I plotted the % IMGS to total number of positions. Figure 2 depicts this scatter plot.

The solid white line is median for both X and Y axes, the dashed yellow line is a stringent gating strategy

The plot itself split into quadrant based on the median for both the variables. Thus 4 quadrants are,

1. Programs in top right quadrant would show, more available positions and IMGs matching.

2. Programs in bottom right would be more available positions but fewer IMGs matching

3. Programs in bottom left, would be fewer positions and fewer IMGs matching

4. Programs in top left, would be fewer positions but higher IMGs matching.

Thus top left and top right would be the quadrants that would be favorable. From our previous figure, Nebraska, Arkansas, Connecticut, and New Mexico are in the top left quadrant. These are programs with fewer positions but greater percentage of IMGs matching. New Jersey, South Carolina, Louisiana, Texas and New York are all in the top right quadrant. We can set stringent criteria and set the gating strategy to be discriminating (e.g. > 60% IMGs accepted and > 60 total positions). This yields top IMG friendly states for neurology as Nebraska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Louisiana and New York.